Agent Alabama
by K. Jefferies
Summary: A Freelancer is born.
1. Prolouge

It all started when I was little, about eight years old. I was the most athletic girl in my grade and I was never beat at any game. It was a pretty average day early in the year, we were playing zombie tag, and everyone else was it. I wouldn't let myself get tagged, and they were almost upon me and with no where else to go I took desperate measures and jumped from the platform I was on to a separate one about a meter and a half away. That was that day that I learned that I was terrified and exhilarated by the thrill of danger and a great many other things.

I barely made it across the gap and then I had to pull myself up with my arms alone. The other kids looked at me in wonder for a moment, they continued to chase me for the next ten minutes. Everyone was tired so I was declared the winner, that's when I noticed the Covenant corvette, they were glassing the planet. I pointed it out and told my friends "We should get to where the pelican is supposed to show up". We had been doing drills for this kind of situation ever since the destruction of Harvest. We ran towards the field where the pelican would come and pick us up..

About a minute later the pelican arrived, even though I was first in line I refused to get on till everyone else was on too. The last of the people were in and just as I was about to step in myself, I saw my crippled little brother, Jamie, trying to run towards us. Along the way he dropped his glasses and stopped to pick them up, knowing that there wasn't a lot of time left, I began to run towards him. In that instant the Covenant started glassing near the school. The pilot yelled, "We can't wait and any longer we'll be vaporized!" I was instantly grabbed by one of the marines and pulled into the pelican. I scratched, clawed, kicked, punched, every and anything I could reach to get to Jamie and help him. The marine was surprised, but he didn't let me go. The pelican took off and I started crying and screaming, tears were streaming down my face as I screamed even louder, the plasma was getting closer to him. Jamie was to far away to help and when he heard my screams he looked up, just in time to be vaporized by the hot plasma stream. I couldn't do anything but watch.

I stopped fighting and the marine put me down, I was numb, tears silently streaming down my face. I was too shocked and to stunned to even think about anything, I just stared at the place my brother had been just moments before, I just couldn't accept it. I sat there until I realized that any one of the teachers could have helped him. I became so angry that I looked at them and started screaming about how they could have saved my brother and they just sat there and suddenly they were very interested in their feet. That really pissed me off, I started hitting one then and I yelled and screamed calling them worthless pieces of shit, the marine seeing a clearly aggravated kid capable of causing some damage, grabbed some knock out gas and pressed it to my face. I tried to breathe as I felt myself getting light-headed, I tried to get it off my face with no success. My vision blurred and I just glared at the marine as I slowly slid into unconsciousness.

I awoke later the next day, we were on a frigate, and the other kids told me that when we got to the space elevator it had already been destroyed. So they had to seal the back of the pelican off, and we flew into space. We had met with the frigate in the lower atmosphere. We docked and the marine carried me out into the room I was currently in. The rest of them had gone further into the docking stations and met with all the other survivors from Biko most of the kids had been reunited with at least one family member, and a lot kids actually had all of there family survive. Some of the less lucky had no one left. I immediately asked about my family, they looked away. It hit me like a kick to the stomach, I was one of the unlucky, my whole family has been killed by the god damn Covenant, I was an orphan.

I started crying again but not as much as before, I was surprised at how little I was bothered by their deaths or the fact that I was an orphan. The only thing I cared about was how powerless I had been to help Jamie. I just sat in the corner, glaring at the wall, my friends tried to help me, but it was impossible. I relived the moment over and over in my head thinking of any way I could have saved him. I just couldn't find it. I was so certain that if I did, he wouldn't have died and he'd be with me at that moment. Every so often when I was sure everyone else was asleep I would go visit the windows and I would look out to see if I was truly alone, as if my family had a separate ship and were just waiting for me to realize it. It was hard for me to get through every day without someone who really cared about helping me. That was just the beginning of the hardship for me.


	2. Chapter 1: The Very Short Stay

That was about seven years before they settled me into an orphanage, I can't count how many others I was sent to, all I remember was it was a different planet every single time. I apparently caused "too much trouble", I only told ghost stories to the other little kids, looking back it makes sense, I was a bit disturbed at that age. There were a few times where I actually caused some serious trouble, you'll hear about that later. I was eventually sent to an orphanage on Reach, near New Alexandria. It was for 'troubled children'. I didn't like it much there, the caretakers were unkind, I had no freedom, and every day moved like clockwork. I had even less to do than before so, I started thinking at night when I could be with myself. It took me awhile, but I figured if I trained hard enough and got the right friends, I could break myself out, and go fight the Covenant.

I started that the next day, I sat and watched all the groups carefully to see what they talked about and who would be the best group for me to attempt joining. I immediately noticed a group with an obvious leader, they seemed to be talking about Biko and the war, my mind immediately jumped to join them but I held back, there were other groups to see. It turns out that all the others just talked about illegal deals or childish toys, nothing with a purpose like that one group, I looked around and saw nothing I hadn't seen yet, so I walked over to that one group and said "Hi, my name's Chantelle, I'm new here." The leader immediately stood up and said "Mines Jason nice to meet you, your from Biko right?" I was surprised that he knew that and it must have shown on my face because he immediately said "We know a lot about all the kids here, whenever there's a new kid one of us breaks into the personal records, you've got a very interesting one." I rolled my eyes and mumbled, "I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with my 'record' here."

"Don't worry we won't hold it against you, if I remember correctly, you've got public disturbance, beating up a kid who insulted your little brother, breaking into a military base, stealing a handgun along with a couple flash bangs." One of the girls who I later found out was named Casey whispered in his ear, I picked up a couple words but not enough to figure out what she was saying. "Oh ya, hacking the database to find out where everything was, with almost no training and almost getting away with it. That's impressive. Then there's the whole attacking the commanding officer at the base, you caused some serious damage…" I cut him off, "Ya he asked me if my parents knew where I was, I replied with a simple no, he continued to say 'they must be the two worst parents in the UNSC'. As you can imagine I got really mad, I launched myself on him and screamed at him, and well you know the rest. And that kid deserved it, he insulted my brother…" My voice slowly trailed off as everything, all the repressed emotions, pain and memories came back to me like a dam breaking and the water falling over you like a torrent, I felt like I was drowning in them. A single tear escaped my usually perfect tough-girl façade and slowly slid down my face, my throat started burning and cheeks heated up, the warning signs to a flood that I knew was coming. I tried to hide it and excuse myself but I was too late they had noticed. The tears came out with no mercy, revenge for all those years held in since that first day. I was expecting them to start laughing at my weakness, but instead I saw sympathetic faces watching me, a girl named Mandy came up and patted my back reassuringly. Jason said with a sad smile, "Its ok, we all understand, I lost my parents on Biko too."

"Really?" I laughed, I didn't stop crying but I felt better at those words. "I'm not alone here?"

"Ya, we all lost our parents on a planet glassed by the Covenant, we all want our revenge."

"That's good to know, so what's the social structure here? Just to know so I don't ruff up the wrong people." He laughed "Well there is a kind of hierarchy here, with us at the top. We act as the law of this place, this kingdom if you will. The adults who 'run' this place don't care enough to police it; they feed us and pay the bills, the only time they police it is if someone is seriously hurt like broken bone or something, then the kid gets put in 'house arrest' per say." I liked the idea of helping people, it would give me something to do while I waited for the right moment. I left soon after, giving the excuse that I was tired; I was actually trying to regain my composure before the tour.

Jason explained to me that they had a plan to escape and they needed my help, it would take years but they were working on it. Mandy decided to join us and then Jason left us to take care of some planning and Mandy started the tour. We were walking around the orphanage she showed me where the social groups usually stayed. I was impressed with how much respect the kids gave her and even me despite the fact that I was new and hadn't been there very long. It was the kind of respect that only the most liked people receive, the kind of respect that is born out of awe. I wasn't used to it, I was usually looked down on, never beat up, I scared people too much for that, but I was looked down on never the less. I enjoyed the feeling.

At one point Mandy was talking to a little boy who had his face all cut up and she was telling him a story, it was really sweet of her and I enjoyed her company. I got lost in the story she was telling when I heard some angry voices coming from around the corner in a room. I hated to interrupt the story but it was absolutely necessary. "Mandy… um… should I go check out those noises over there?" she seemed confused for a brief moment and then snapped out of it, "What? Oh ya, defiantly, if someone is getting beat up tackle the asshole for me will ya?" surprised by the venom in her voice I replied "Sure thing, whatever you say Mandy."

I walked towards the corner and the voices got louder, I could barely make out the words, "What do you mean you couldn't get out last night? You know that I need that stuff. How am I supposed to get my sleep without it?" there was a quiet meek reply, "I don't know! It was impossible, the caretakers were keeping a tight watch on the fence! You know how those moa are always getting in. They were watching for them." I couldn't take it any more, I turned the corner and saw a big hulking boy towering over this little kid, who couldn't have been more than 8 years old, the older boy was holding a metal rod that looked like it came from a fence somewhere, I knew I didn't have a lot of time. I ran harder than I had run since Biko and tackled the older one. He fell straight over "What the hell!" he tried to get me off he chest, but that wasn't going to happen even though he stood more than a head taller than me. He eventually stopped when Mandy turned the corner and sighed, "Kevin what are we gonna do with you? This is your fifth offence this month, I thought you'd be tired of the extra chores by now." Kevin was like a dog caught doing something wrong "I am tired of them but it's to hard to change my ways." Mandy at this point told me to leave, what she needed to do wasn't going to be pretty. I left pretty quickly.

I saw Kevin later on, he had one serious scratch on his face, all puffy and it looked really infected. I felt kind of bad for him but at the same time I was pretty happy with myself, that was until I noticed a guy named Jack staring at me, "What's your problem?" he realized I'd caught him staring, "I don't have a problem"

"Uh huh, right."

"No seriously I'm just… just… um."

"Ya, I know staring at me."

"So what, its not like its illegal or anything."

"Maybe not illegal but if I ever catch you checking me out again, I will break your nose."

"You know you like it."

"Fuck off."

"No."

"Fine then." I stormed off.

When Casey found me later I was in my room alone, I'd scared off my roommates, and I was punching the concrete wall with a vengeance. I was really irritated that I had let Jack get to me. My knuckles were bloody, and so was most of the stuff around me, especially the wall. It wasn't a pretty sight and when Casey saw it she tore a small piece of cloth from the bottom of her shirt and took me away from the wall. She wrapped the cloth around my hand and went to get Jason. I glared at the bloody space on the wall, almost daring it to give me a reason. When Casey got back with Jason, I saw that there was another boy with her named Paul. Casey started cleaning the wall and the surrounding area and Jason started talking, "Do you mind telling me what the HELL is wrong with you? According to Jack you left the cafeteria an hour ago all mad about God knows what and now we find you here destroying the place." I was surprised Jack had told them anything, " I'm assuming he didn't tell you what I was pissed about." My calm tone seemed to take him off guard, " Well no… he just said…"

"He just said what? That I was pissed off? Is that all? Well then let me fill you in, he was checking me out, I told him to fuck off and he didn't. So now you know go tell him off."

"Ok that's normal for Jack."

"I don't care, if you don't want me destroying the place I'll go break shit somewhere else."

"Well that's sort of why Paul's here, he's been clearing out an old abandoned base in the forest and no one wants to run through it so we were wondering if you'd wanna try, we have some old style paintball guns and we'd all shoot at you while you tried to get by us."

"I'm game if you are."

"Great."

About 15 minutes later we were all at the base, it did look pretty old but it provided plenty of shelter from on coming paintballs. I wasn't wearing any armor so if I got hit it was definitely going to leave a mark. I started down at the very end of the field and the others were all acting as if they needed to defend the base. I started along the edge of the field moving quickly, I heard a gun go off and I dived behind a broken wall. Others followed suit and when it calmed down again I came out from the wall and hid behind a tree in the center of the field, we had hardly begun and I was halfway there. Things got tricky here because all the walls were only high enough to cover me while I was lying down. I jumped over as many of the walls as I could before I heard another gun go off. I dived but this time I wasn't so lucky, as I dived my leg was hit by a paintball. I forced myself to stay quiet but it hurt like a bitch. I used my arms to drag myself closer to my goal and when I was less than three meters away I realized I was gonna have to jump a concrete wall. I scanned the whole wall looking for the lowest point to jump over when I caught of flash of sun reflecting off of something on the roof. I looked a bit closer and I saw it was Jack with binoculars and there was no doubt he was watching me. He would make the rest aware of my location so I stood up and ran for the wall, there were paintballs shot and my hand was hit but I kept going and pulled myself over the wall. I landed just as some paintballs flew overhead and to my amusement hit Jack as he was standing up.

We returned to the orphanage and I went to clean the paint off of me before anyone noticed. I got into some cleaner clothes and turned the corner out of my room to see Jack staring into a hole in the wall. I had no doubt that the hole showed my room. He was giggling like an idiot and so were his buddies. I came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder, he turned around and when he was in the perfect spot my fist connected with his face and he fell against the wall. I could see in his face that he knew he was in some deep trouble and I just pummeled him. Hit after hit his face got redder, I'm almost certain I gave him a black eye, when I was tired I hit his nose and blood started streaming out of it. I gave him one more punch for good measure and I allowed myself to be pulled away by the caretaker and sent into a small room with one bed and a medium sized window and chair. I assumed that this was the 'house arrest' I was told about. I needed to get off Reach or I would get recruited to the army, either way it was going to be a very short stay.


End file.
